The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, has recruited Michele Korver, formerly of the United States Department of Justice, to serve as the agency’s first chief digital currency adviser. In her role, Korver will be tasked with advancing "FinCEN’s leadership role in the digital currency space by working across internal and external partners toward strategic and innovative solutions to prevent and mitigate illicit financial practices and exploitation,” the agency announced on Tuesday. Crypto investors may be familiar with Korver, as she previously served as digital currency counsel for the Department of Justice’s criminal division. She also advised the Treasury Department’s …

Ether’s (ETH) $1.5-billion monthly expiry on June 25 was slightly favorable for bears, and at the time, Cointelegraph reported that the $2,200 price was critical to eliminate 73% of the neutral-to-bearish put options. However, bulls were unable to sustain their advantage because the expiry price was near $1,950. In the end, the protective put options outnumbered the neutral-to-bullish call options by $30 million. Fast forward to July, and after a noticeable 10% rally, Ether’s price again struggles to sustain the $2,100 support. Bitcoin’s (BTC) negative 3.5% performance could partially explain last week’s price move, but the London hard fork scheduled …

The United States’ Financial Crimes Enforcement Network will continue to closely follow the cryptocurrency industry as one of its top priorities for combating crimes like money laundering. FinCEN officially announced Thursday that “virtual currency considerations,” or operations involving cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), will be among its top national priorities for countering terrorism financing and ensuring proper Anti-Money Laundering policies. “The establishment of these priorities is intended to assist all covered institutions in their efforts to meet their obligations” under related laws and regulations, the regulator said. FinCEN elaborated that it will soon issue regulations to specify how financial institutions should …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has charged a cryptocurrency issuer for “making materially false and misleading statements” in connection with an unregistered security offering conducted between August 2017 and January 2018, offering further evidence that regulators were still targeting initial coin offerings from the last major market mania. Loci Inc., the platform behind LOCIcoin, and CEO John Wise were formally charged on Tuesday. The SEC claims that Loci and Wise misled investors about the company’s revenues, employee numbers and user base during the $7.6 million crowdsale. The regulator also alleges that Wise misused $38,163 in investor …

With extreme positions on both sides, some would have us believe that decentralized technology and regulation are mutually exclusive. As pervasive as that narrative has become, a more evolved view is that both decentralization and regulation are inevitable, so the best results will flow with regulators and innovators coming together. But what will that cooperation look like? At the Stellar Development Foundation, our view is that regulators and innovators will (and should) influence each other, and that means both sides should be prepared to compromise. Let’s start with some honest self-reflection: There is no inherent quality of blockchain or cryptocurrency …

Individuals have different choices when it comes to storing their cryptocurrencies. They can use a hosted wallet (sometimes called a custodial wallet), which involves an intermediary (a host) that usually receives, stores and transmits the assets on behalf of their clients. For example, a centralized crypto exchange can be a hosted wallet provider, with which an individual sets up an account/wallet. In such cases, the value stored belongs to the account holder, but the funds are controlled by the wallet provider/host (pursuant to the contractual arrangement and instructions from the client). Alternatively, cryptocurrencies can be stored in an unhosted wallet …

There is often a perceived tension between regulation and innovation. A pervasive narrative has emerged that these two important parts of our society are at odds with each other. In reality, it’s when these two come together as partners that we can effect change and transform our world for the better. Nowhere is this more true than in the blockchain industry. Over the last few months, we’ve seen seemingly reactionary regulators in different parts of the world try to formulate new rules and guidance in silos, without sufficient input from the key stakeholders most knowledgeable about the technology — the …

The United States Department of Treasury is again sharpening its sword upon crypto. In January 2021, the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued Notice 2020-2. The Notice states that FinCEN intends to amend its regulations concerning the reporting of foreign financial accounts to include digital currency as a type of reportable account. In simple terms, this means FinCEN may soon require crypto users to file annual Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or FBARs, for crypto held on foreign exchanges. The effects of such an amendment are expansive. A mere paragraph long, the notice carries several implications …

The current acting director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, will bid farewell to the governing body in April. His replacement: Michael Mosier, Chainalysis’ former chief technical counsel. “Director Kenneth A. Blanco today announced several leadership changes impacting the bureau,” said a public statement from FinCEN on Friday, adding: “Director Blanco announced he will depart FinCEN on April 9, after serving as the organization’s director since December 2017. Michael Mosier, former FinCEN Deputy Director and current Counselor to the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, will return to FinCEN as Acting Director.” Blanco was the government agency’s eighth director. …

After the U.S. Treasury Department extended the comment period for anyone to express their thoughts on a proposed crypto rule, non-profit crypto policy advocate group Coin Center has made another — and possibly final — argument to regulators. Coin Center directed its comment to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, over proposed rules that would require registered crypto exchanges in the U.S. to verify the identity of people using "an unhosted or otherwise covered wallet" for a transaction of more than $3,000 and report on all crypto transactions of more than $10,000. The advocacy group referred to the proposal …

Powers On... is a new monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who spent much of his 40-year legal career working with complex securities-related cases in the United States after a stint with the SEC. He is now an Adjunct Professor at Florida International University School of Law, where he teaches a course on 'Blockchain, Crypto and Regulatory Considerations.' Dear Readers: Here is my first opinion piece for Cointelegraph since my retirement a month ago from law firm practice (and prior to that, the SEC) after a 40 year career. It is an exciting opportunity for me, and hopefully an interesting …

The Blockchain Association, a leading trade association and lobbying group, has hired Ron Hammond as its new director of government relations. The Blockchain Association has been one of Washington, D.C.'s biggest advocates for the crypto industry since its launch in 2018. Executive director Kristin Smith recently appeared on Cointelegraph's Top 100 list. Hammond, meanwhile, cut his teeth working on crypto policy for Representative Warren Davidson, most notably the Token Taxonomy Act, which is also the origin of the relationship with the Blockchain Association. It was at Davidson's roundtable for crypto industry stakeholders back in September 2018 that the Blockchain Association …